Canon's printers are very economical with ink, and are very reliable. Their ink system for the following two printers includes separate black cartridges for photos and text, which provides great photo quality as well as economy for printing text.

The following two Canon printers are rated very highly in magazine reviews. I have a Canon printer that's a few years old that uses the same ink system and ink cartridges as these printers, and I've been extremely happy with it. In that period, I've only had a nozzle clog once that I can recall, and the nozzle cleaning cycle cleared up the problem.

Other printers I've owned from another major printer manufacturer were subject to frequent clogs, requiring frequent cleaning cycles. That uses up a lot of ink. And clogs eventually killed those printers. They also tended to clog if you didn't print with them for awhile, and I've experienced no such problem with the Canon printer.

SPECIAL TIP:
Here are a few things you should be sure to look for when buying. Amazon often sells Canon printers with rebates. So be sure to go to the Amazon product page of the printer in which you're interested, and check the price AFTER any rebates. Also check to see when the rebate expires, to make sure that you order before the expiration date. If there's a link to the rebate form, then download the form and save it for later reference. And check to see whether the item is "In Stock," which is indicated just below the price. Just below that, check to see whether the seller is Amazon.com, or whether it is a third-party seller (sometimes Amazon selects a third-party seller if they have a lower price than Amazon). If it's a third party, then I always compare their price with Amazon's price, which you can see on the right side of the screen. Note that Amazon often offers free shipping and rebates, which in the end may give you a better deal than the third-party.

My recommendations:

Canon Pixma iP4500 Photo Printer This is strictly a printer, with no copying or scanning capability. PC Magazine rated this printer very highly in its review "Canon Pixma iP4500 Photo Printer" on 12-11-07.

Canon Pixma MP610 Photo All-In-One Printer This is an "All-In-One Printer" meaning that it prints, copies and scans. The specifications of the printer section of this unit are identical to the above Canon Pixma iP4500, so the print engines of the two units appear to be the same. They both use the same ink cartridges. PC Magazine also rated this printer very highly in its review "Canon Pixma MP610 Photo All-In-One" on 10-25-07. An important thing to know about this "All-In-One" printer is that it can scan photo prints and sheets of paper, but it can not scan film, slides or transparencies. So if you need to scan film, slides or transparencies, then this is not the unit to buy. In that case, you'd want to instead buy the above Canon Pixma iP4500 printer, and then buy a separate scanner that does scan film, etc.

Look for a separate review of film, slide and transparancy scanners that will be coming soon to this site. I'll also be adding buying tips for the best way to buy ink cartridges for the above printers, and some papers that provide great results with these printers.